天下制覇

Key’s untapped market. 

I have no issues stating that I’ve by and large ignored the overhyped Black Rock Shooter. First a promo, then a super promo, then a special concert promo, then a super special pilot promo, then a super special ultra tiger dragon edition promo with promises of webstreaming, all the while being delayed by I think over 6 months from its initial stated release. At the same time, people who don’t understand Japanese were whipping themselves into a frenzy thinking that it’s something other than an OVA. To say that I’m tired of hearing about this before it even starts is an understatement.

Impressions:

This is actually two shows. One is mindless, but cool. The other is just mindless. Of course, guess which one the OVA spends 90% of its time on. Hell, the credits are almost as long as the interesting parts. After the short opening sequence, the first 20 minutes are "Girls Making Friends" with the occasional picture of whose-her-face walking through the Otherworld. It took about three minutes before I was anxiously looking at the clock and wondering if I had enough stale bagels to make bread pudding. I am being a little deceptive since the main/only fight starts about 20 seconds later, but after maybe a minute of that, it’s back to ten straight minutes of "Girls At School," including a two minute musical montage about them hanging out. What exactly were those delays for again? Had to spend more time animating… nothing? This OVA is so needlessly padded that it leaves a trail of tissues behind it when it walks. How about we focus on the Otherworld counterparts instead of having 10 minutes of looking angsty at cell phones?

If you want to get the most enjoyment out of it, skip to the Otherworld fights, rip out the music, and ignore all else. The real world stuff is generic narcotic drivel whose connection is never actually explained nor explored. You’ll still get probably about five minutes of enjoyment out of it, but it’s not worth the 40 other minutes of "Time Passes: The Show." Even then, it’s still very soulless since there’s no reason to feel anything for any of the characters. They’re just there. Fighting. Because monochrome fighting is cool. Well, mostly cool. I’m not a big fan of the "make the art stills look bad and the animation choppy because it’s more stylistic," but I recognize it as a conscious choice and not from the budget running out. It’s like watching some of Monty Oum’s stuff, only half as long and with 40 minutes of schoolgirls hanging out spliced in between cuts. With a super friendship disintegraton hug at the end. For once, I’d like to see ultimate victory in a Japanese show thanks to superior firepower, or skills, or intelligence. I swear to god, it’s like they’re trying to position themselves as an exporter of friendship as a fungible product.

And in case you’re curious; no, I do not have enough bagels. I will need to go to the grocery store. Over and out.